health

In Britain, e-cigarettes are seen as central to the fight against smoking, but many experts believe the evidence is contradictoryIn politically fractious times, vaping has achieved the impossible. It has morphed into a common enemy for those at opposit…

Gulf in healthy life expectancy reveals widening regional inequalities, according to parliamentary reportThe gap in healthy life expectancy between parts of Britain has widened over the past decade to become as large as that between the UK and Sudan, a…

Ex-British Lions captain believed to be first UK sportsman to go public about living with virusWelsh rugby star Gareth Thomas has revealed that he is HIV positive.Mr Thomas, who came out as gay in 2009, is thought to be the first UK sportsman to go pub…

Labour describes the cuts as ‘shameful and utterly counterproductive’Help for children who are addicted to drink or drugs is being slashed in the latest round of cuts to public health services that ministers are imposing on councils.Councils across Eng…

I thought dementia was all about losing myself, but I have found sides to me I never knew I hadIt was at work where I noticed my first symptoms. I was a non-clinical team leader training matrons and sisters in the art of electronic rostering. My girls …

Prof Arne Akbar, president of the British Society for Immunology, says compulsory vaccination is a blunt tool which could increase health inequities and alienate parents. Plus Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard and others call for a funded postnatal medical app…

• Team Ineos chief to learn on Saturday if surgery was successful• ‘I can put up with a lot but in hospital I was overwhelmed’Dave Brailsford has revealed he has undergone surgery for prostate cancer. The 55-year-old Team Ineos principal, who led Brita…

GPs would miss fewer diagnoses if ‘camouflaging’ was better understood, say researchersWomen may not be diagnosed with autism as frequently as men because they are better at hiding the common signs of the condition, according to new research.Some autis…

The doctors hadn’t seen such a bad case. But I don’t blame my mother for not having me vaccinatedI was watching a film with my boyfriend, Marty, one Saturday night last April when I felt an itchy rash on my neck. Then I started getting a dry cough, lik…

Drowning our sorrows in duty-free whisky may be the only way to cope but as official policy, it stinksIn a government gearing up for an election, where every statement is supposed to be choreographed as part of a finely tuned grid of speeches and event…

Short-termism has hampered investment in equipment and staffing that could help the NHS keep people alive • Mark Dayan is a policy analyst at the Nuffield TrustCancer survival rates in the UK have long lagged behind those in other countries of comparab…

Despite six confirmed deaths connected to vaping in the US there is no consensus on risksIs it true that e-cigarettes have caused deaths in the United States?There have been six confirmed deaths connected to vaping across the US – in California, Illino…

National agencies granted greater power to enforce existing laws banning practices such as shacklingIndonesia is stepping up efforts to protect people with mental health conditions by affording national agencies new powers to monitor and close down ins…

Public health body calculates undiagnosed sufferers after monitoring drugs usersAlmost 100,000 Britons are at risk of dying because they do not know that they have the deadly liver disease hepatitis C, health officials are warning.An estimated 95,600 p…

National Trust research finds birdsong and rustling leaves increase relaxation by 30%Gentle woodland sounds such as birdsong and the breeze rustling leaves in the trees are more relaxing than meditation recordings, a new study claims.Researchers expose…

Campaigners hope success will be replicated in England after earlier NHS offer was rejectedThe Scottish government has agreed a deal with the manufacturer of Orkambi, the cystic fibrosis drug that NHS England has said is unaffordable for its patients.S…